John Dudley: Football will survive current assault on the game

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I was at Jerry Uht Park on Thursday night covering Game 2 of the Eastern League Western Division playoff series when the Baltimore Ravens-Denver Broncos NFL season opener came on in the press box.

An old-timer who was there visiting the official scorer looked at the television in disgust.

"Eh, who wants to watch that sport?" he said. "It takes them three hours just to play a game."

Yes, it seems like everyone is taking shots at football these days.

The NFL just settled a concussion-related lawsuit brought by its former players for $765 million, and the game has been forced to deal with a series of high-profile crimes and misdemeanors, including the indictment of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez on murder charges and the sweeping fallout from the Jerry Sandusky child molestation case at Penn State.

I was too busy Thursday night to point out to the old-timer the irony that he was complaining about the length of a football game at a baseball game that went 12 innings and lasted 3 hours, 29 minutes.

But I'm convinced football at all levels will survive the current crisis, although there could be some short-term pain, including what already appears to be a decline in participation among high school- and youth-aged participants.

The most immediate concern is head injuries, especially to players at the youngest levels, most often caused by tacklers and ballcarriers launching themselves helmet-first into one another.

Changing this will require continued vigilance at the NFL and college levels in the form of fines and penalties, and even heavier lifting in high school and below, where players are first taught tackling technique.

Based on my own observations, I believe we are already seeing an emphasis on safer tackling at the youth and high school levels as a result of awareness among players and coaches and increased practice time devoted to safe tackling form.

But it will take time for tackling overall to improve as these players work their way up to the higher levels.

Already there has been a call in the NFL for taking some of the violence out of the game, and not just from the commissioner's office.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano has proposed eliminating kickoffs, where some of the most violent collisions take place, and awarding the scoring team the ball at its 30-yard-line with fourth-down-and-15 and the option to punt or go for a first down.

Others have suggested studying tackling techniques used in rugby, where players without pads learn to hit with their heads up and drag opponents to the ground rather than trying to knock them over.

The risk is that fringe fans who tune in to see dramatic hits might be turned off by a less violent version of the game, just as a segment of racing fans would stop watching if there were no more wrecks, and some hockey fans would boycott the sport if fighting were outlawed.

There is clearly a bloodlust element at work for some who watch football, but as we learn more about the long-term risks associated with the style of tackling that has overtaken football over the past few decades, whatever voice that element once had is fading away.

Football is on its way to becoming a safer sport, albeit a somewhat different one than many of us grew up watching.

If that's what it takes to keep the game strong and healthy, it's more than a fair tradeoff.